Christian Education Vision Endowment Program
The Christian Education Vision Endowment™ process is designed to help a Christian school's administration bring the entire ministry leadership on board with the effort from the very beginning. The only way the endowment effort will be successful is with the strong endorsement and support of the ministry's senior leadership team. For church-schools, this includes the senior pastor and deacons. For independent schools, this can include the ministry's administration and governing board, as well as key ministry leaders from the local churches that support the efforts of your school.
Leadership Meeting
The first step in the Vision Endowment process is to schedule a Leadership Meeting. If you have not already done so, you should watch the short online video of Dr. Mike Duffy explaining how the Vision Endowment program can help your Christian school. Schedule permitting, Dr. Mike Duffy or Attorney Matt Davis (EV's Vice President & Corporate Counsel) are available to come to your ministry and personally present the Vision Endowment to your leadership team.
Once the meeting has been scheduled and confirmed, EV will send your ministry the Leadership Package which contains Leadership Books for you to give to your entire governing board and leadership team as well as samples of the other resources that are used in the Vision Endowment Program. (Please let us know if you need more than 20 books.)
Following your leadership meeting, your board will determine whether to move forward with the Vision Endowment program.
Vision Endowment Program
When your leadership team decides to move forward, contact EV to let us know of your desire to begin the Vision Endowment Program. The program includes the service of establishing a Vision Endowment specifically for your ministry and all of the educational and Biblical stewardship training resources you will need to introduce your new Vision Endowment to your entire school community. In addition, when you engage Eternal Vision's services, our stewardship planning professionals are available to any potential donor to your ministry to provide stewardship counseling and planned giving service—free of charge! All of the following tools and services are included with the Vision Endowment Program:
- Establishing the Vision Endowment
- Legal Service: All of the legal service necessary to establish your new Vision Endowment is provided by Eternal Vision. EV's Christian attorney will work with your administration to obtain the necessary documentation, help your ministry board articulate the promise that governs the endowment, and draft the documents that you and Eternal Vision will adopt to create the Vision Endowment benefitting your ministry. (Phone and web conferencing options are available to help explain the process and answer any questions.)
- Tax-exempt Verification: As part of the endowment establishment process, EV's corporate counsel will perform a review of your ministry's eligibility to receive tax-exempt endowment funds. This valuable service will give your ministry confidence of its tax-exempt status under current IRS law.
- Program Assistance: Eternal Vision provides instructions for the ministry leadership on the process of working with Eternal Vision's staff in creating a Vision Endowment for the school, suggestions for introducing the new Vision Endowment to your school community, and available options for sustaining the effort necessary to build the endowment.
- Introducing the Vision Endowment
- Eternal Vision Sunday: Schedule permitting, Dr. Mike Duffy is available to conduct Eternal Vision Sunday at your church. The EV Sunday program includes a full day of teaching and preaching on Biblical stewardship as well as a personal introduction of your Vision Endowment to your people. (See details below.)
- Eternal Vision Books (100 copies): This beautifully designed full-color book should be given to each family within your school ministry's sphere of influence at least one week prior to Eternal Vision Sunday. The book introduces the new endowment to your constituents and shows them how your Vision Endowment works. The book also contains several valuable lessons on the basics of Biblical stewardship and informs potential donors of the services available to them from Eternal Vision's professionals. (Additional books are available if needed.)
- Promoting the Vision Endowment
- Vision Endowment Promotional Brochures (1,000 copies): These full-color brochures are personalized for your ministry and designed to help you promote your new Vision Endowment. The brochure highlights the quality improvements your Vision Endowment can produce with their help and informs potential donors how Eternal Vision's professional staff can assist them in developing a Christ-honoring stewardship plan for ministry gifting. (Additional brochures are available upon request.)
- Vision Endowment Posters (10 copies): To help you keep a visible presence and reminder of your Vision Endowment, Eternal Vision has designed these though-provoking and challenging posters for you to display around your ministry facility. Ten posters are provided with the initial package (2 posters x 5 copies each), and additional posters are shipped throughout the year as part of the sustained effort.
- Website Promotional Package: Eternal Vision provides your ministry with a package of icons, photos, and suggested text for use on your ministry's website. In addition, Eternal Vision will establish a page on EV's website specifically for your Vision Endowment and providing potential donors with information particularly related to your ministry. This cross-promotion gives donors confidence and establishes the existence of a true partnership between Eternal Vision and your ministry.
- Professional Services
- Planned-giving Stewardship Counseling: Once you establish a Vision Endowment, Eternal Vision's professional staff is available to your ministry at no further expense to you or potential donors. Our staff of attorneys and financial planners are available to meet with potential donors to help them discover and follow God's leading in the are of ministry giving. Our professionals have no financial products to sell and have no other agenda in speaking with donors other than helping them maximize their eternal rewards through the use of resources God has blessed them with. All our professionals are Bible college graduates and have extensive ministry experience--truly the kind of "Psalm One Counsel" you can feel confident exposing your people to.
- Vision Endowment Marketing Consulting: Our desire is to help your ministry's Vision Endowment reach fully funded status as soon as possible so that you can begin to experience the exciting impact it will have on the quality of your ministry. Our ministry staff is available to your administration for free consultation and advice on ways to keep the Vision Endowment opportunity highly visible with potential donors in your school community. We will help you brainstorm new ideas, coordinate exciting events, and facilitate planned-giving services for the benefit of your school's Vision Endowment.
- Eligibility for On-Site Promotional Events
- Eternal Vision Sunday*: In three highly focused services, well-known Evangelist Dr. Mike Duffy teaches and preaches on the often-neglected subject of Biblical financial stewardship in a manner that reaches far beyond the traditional applications of offering plate giving. While the priority of tithing is certainly emphasized, Dr. Duffy's preaching challenges each Christian to consider all the implications of his role as a Biblical steward of God's resources.
- Stewardship Planning Weekend*: Attorney Matt Davis conducts a Saturday/Sunday program of workshops, teaching, and personal meetings designed to provide each attendee with practical opportunities to put the truth of God's Word into action. In the Saturday morning workshop, Attorney Davis provides financial and estate planning expertise to your members from a unique Biblical perspective as well as an opportunity to participate in a Will Workshop. On Sunday, Attorney Davis is available to teach adult Sunday School and/or preach on advanced Biblical stewardship topics that build on each previous lesson.
- *Availability for on-site promotional events is limited by our ministry calendar and speaker availability. No fee or extra charge is assigned to these on-site events, but we do ask that the ministry reimburse speaker travel and meeting expenses.
Sustaining the Effort
Having established and introduced your Vision Endowment, it is now Eternal Vision's privilege and responsibility to sustain the promotional effort needed to help your Vision Endowment become fully funded. Through personal stewardship planning services, regular mailings, email and online services, and Biblical stewardship training opportunities, our professional staff make it a priority to keep your Vision Endowment visible to potential donors within your ministry's sphere of influence. The cost of the sustaining effort is borne by initial gifting into your Vision Endowment.
- Direct Mailings to Potential Donors
- Authored by EV, approved by your leadership
- Calendar-sensitive scheduling around key times/events
- Promotional Materials
- Treasure Builders™: Bi-monthly lessons on Biblical financial stewardship
- Sunday school curriculum
- Updated posters
- Updated Vision Endowment brochures
- Christian school curriculum items
- Electronic Communications
- Continued website presence/links between EV's website and your website
- Regular bulletin inserts
- Prayer bulletin inserts (text and graphics)
- Email broadcasts to constituents